Laman (jamak)

Sunday, March 30, 2008

My PC got infected by a virus so there's some delay in updating the blog. Sorry for that. I've also keep forgetting to snap a couple of pictures while I'm in the zone. It looks like this figure isn't going to be finished in just 48 hours. I will try to finish it before the month's end though.

Let's get part 2 started!

Picking up from the last post, the armature has dried and it's time to put in some flesh and muscle. At this stage I just put on sausage and ball shapes to define the major muscle groups. This is also the stage to get the (final) pose and balance right. The left most picture was the end result after some drying, carving and sanding. Keep all your shavings and scraps from the carving! I'll tell you why later.

After the pose has been establish, now begin the detailing stage. For this stage it's almost impossible for me not to cut apart a figure. Seeing that in the concept Cloe wear a jacket and pants, it's natural to split the figure into two parts. Torso and legs. From here on I detail the parts separately. I did the torso first by making the bustier and jacket. For the legs, it's a matter of sculpting shoes...that's it. Somewhere in between detailing the torso, I made a peg and a hole to join the two parts together.

The detailing stage took a lot of time, most of it spent on waiting for the parts to dry. Dry the part every time you're happy with your sculpt, and don't do too much at one time. It lower the risk of accidentally ruining your sculpts.

Even after sanding, you're bound to find blemishes on the surface of the figure. This is where the scraps and shavings come into play. I put the shaving in a dish and add in water. The idea is to make a pulpy paste to fill the blemishes. This paste can also be used as glue for broken parts. Just make sure to dry the parts completely afterwards.

Thats the end of part 2. Make sure to check back soon for part 3 where we going to tackle the face and head...Oooh.

Friday, March 28, 2008

It's been quite a hectic past few days for me, but now we're back on track!For starters the Jam's deadline has been forwarded to 30th of March. So be ready to get a flood of updates in the next 2 days. This will be a 48 hours sculpt project, so it'll be finished around Sunday evening Jakarta time. I hope you've checked the Tutorial/guides posts earlier, since I'm not going to go into details in some areas (if at all).

Lets get part 1 started!

Preparation is important. So for this project I tidied up my work space a bit. Behold my messy work table! The next picture shows the tools that I use when sculpting. Most of them are dental tools and handmade tools. Sorry for the blurry picture. If you need to see the tools more clearly or wondering what some of them are used for, just give me a shout in the box to the right.

One more thing that I need for this project is an oven/dryer to dry (DUH!) the clay. For this I use a plastic bowl lined with aluminum foil. I placed a wire mesh at the bottom of the bowl to make a platform. For the heat source I use a regular desk lamp with a 25 watt bulb. You could go for more wattage, but this will do.

I've designed a simple character for this project. I named her Cloe. As you can see, my drawing skills need major improvement -_-u. She'll be sculpted using LaDoll clay with no armature inside. The underlaying structure will be made from the same material so that it'll be easier to cut apart later (no cutting into wires and the such). I've drawn a base figure to help me make the limbs proportional. The figure height is 16 cm, so this figure will be about 1/10 scale. The limbs, body and head are then set aside to dry.

The limbs are then cut apart and arranged to replicate the pose as seen in the concept sketch. Wet clay was used to weld the limbs together. You really need to blend the clay to get a good adhesion. After the pose has been established , the whole figure was put aside to dry in the mini dryer/oven.

Monday, March 24, 2008

The goal for this tutorial/guide/WIP documentation series is to make a finished sculpture in 7 days. Starting today (24th March) and hopefully we'll have a finished piece by next Monday (31st March). What I mean finished is just that a finished sculpt without being painted, but I will give my best to paint it if I have time. I started this to challenge myself, to practice my sculpting skill, get organized, and be comfortable in working under harsh deadlines.

The figure that I'll be sculpting is a female leprechaun, anime style! This sculpt will also be entered in the clubhouse 52nd Sculpting Jam. I like to do an internet rule #63 sculpt from time to time. It's fun! Everything is better with tits... so they say :D

Why anime style? because I like it. It has fewer constraints regarding realism and the fact that I began sculpting to be able to own an anime figure, a sexy anime figure, with huge mammaries... and cast off feature..oh my. "Those PVC and GK figures sure are expensive, hey why don't I make one", that's what started it all.

I'll have part 1 ready soon. I'm getting my character design in order and hopefully will be finished before tomorrow. In the mean time, do check Tutorial/guides on my past attempt to make a tutorial. There you can find the basic material that I used for my figures.That's it for part 0. Stay tune tomorrow for part 1 of this mini tutorial

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Just a quick post to tell you that this site can now be accessed through www.midztoyz.com. Now I've finally got my own domain name :)

To celebrate this event, I'm going to start a NEW WIP/tutorial/guide series of posts starting tomorrow. This tutorial will consist of making a full anime inspired figurine in one week, and it'll be REAL time with new post every day! DANG!